Norita: A Heartfelt Journey of a Woman Finding Strength Amidst Military Oppression
Nora Irma Morales de Cortiñas, affectionately known as Norita, was a formidable force in Argentina’s fight for justice, despite standing less than five feet tall—significantly shorter than the country’s former dictator, Gen. Jorge Videla. While Videla ruled with an iron fist from 1976 to 1981, Cortiñas’s moral stature surpassed his, symbolizing the courage of those resisting his regime.
Norita gained national prominence under tragic circumstances when her eldest son, Gustavo, was forcibly disappeared in April 1977—one of thousands of victims taken by the military government’s right-wing agents. Prior to this, she was a quiet housewife, with no active involvement in politics. But this personal loss propelled her into a group of mothers who courageously demanded to know the fate of their missing children, staging demonstrations in the Plaza de Mayo, located just outside the presidential palace in Buenos Aires.
Cortiñas’s inspiring narrative as a leader of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is chronicled in the documentary Norita, directed by Jayson McNamara and Andrea Carbonatto Tortonese, and produced by Sarah Schoellkopf, Melissa Daniels, and Francisco Villa.
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“I met her in 1995 when I was studying abroad in Buenos Aires,” Schoellkopf recalled at a recent Q&A in Los Angeles. “I was able to acquire an internship with her organization, and the requirement was I go talk to one of the Madres to make sure it was okay… Norita looks at me and she’s like, ‘What do you want to do for us?’ And I said, ‘Well, I want to be an intern and I’ll make your coffee, I’ll clean toilets. I really don’t care.’”
Schoellkopf and Cortiñas forged a strong bond, with Schoellkopf later writing her Ph.D. dissertation on the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. She noted, “Nora was kind of like my surrogate grandmother.”
Norita features revealing archival footage that documents the arrests and mistreatment the Mothers faced at the hands of the Argentine security forces, often involving mounted police.
“In the plaza, they would pull over a bondi, a big bus, and the police would put all the madres in this bus and take them down to the jail and book them,” Schoellkopf explained. “They could spend the night [behind bars] if they couldn’t post bail. And bail at that point was only 30 cents. One time, Nora says, ‘I threw down 60 cents and the police officer looked at me and said, ‘No madam, it’s 30.’ And she’s like, ‘No, that’s to cover next week!’”
President of Argentina Jorge Rafael Videla, May 18, 1976.
Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The Videla regime sought to discredit the Madres by branding them as communists, claiming they were responsible for raising children who sympathized with leftist ideologies. In several shocking instances, mothers themselves were abducted and disappeared, including Ana María Careaga’s mother—Careaga, featured in the film, was also victimized by the military regime.
“Everyone in this film has triumphed after a huge tragedy. Ana Careaga’s story deserves its own movie,” Schoellkopf stated. “Her mother was disappeared after [Ana] came back from these concentration camps.”
During the Q&A session, Schoellkopf recounted a chilling story from the mid-1970s about a Jewish woman who was abducted, discussing the horrific treatment of Jewish individuals in Argentinian concentration camps. “They used Nazi slogans, they put up swastikas, and they would tell the Jewish [prisoners], ‘We’re going to make you into soap just like in World War II.’ I mean, disgusting,” she shared.
Norita, like many mothers of missing children, wore a photo of her son Gustavo around her neck as a constant reminder of her loss. Alongside this, the Mothers became known for their white headscarves made from cloth diapers, each embroidered with the names of their disappeared children.
“Their headscarves originated when they needed identifiers for a [religious] pilgrimage outside of Buenos Aires,” Schoellkopf explained. “Somebody suggested we wear our children’s cloth diapers, and that was back in 1978… There’s so much poetry with those panuelos.”
The film boasts impressive executive producers, including Jane Fonda, Naomi Klein, Barbara Muschietti, and Andy Muschietti, along with two-time Oscar-winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla, all of whom have ties to Argentina.
During the Q&A, Santaolalla reflected on his experiences during the military dictatorship. “Just for having long hair, you could be detained,” he recalled. “I’ve been in jail many times. I was lucky enough that I never got hurt—but I’ve seen people being hurt.”
Santaolalla decided to leave Argentina during this turbulent period, sharing, “I was totally taken over by that energy [of the Mothers], and the fact that these women transformed something that must be the most horrendous pain into light, into really this positive energy, not resentful, but more like a loving energy.”
He contributed to the score of Norita alongside composers Paco Cabral, Juan Luqui, and Matias Tozolla, emphasizing the collaborative nature of the music creation process, saying, “I kind of created a pattern or had a vision of more or less what the music could be and we worked around that, with everyone contributing ideas.”
An estimated 30,000 people were disappeared during Gen. Videla’s regime, with the actual number likely much higher. Santaolalla remarked, “The grim reality is that perhaps only 10 percent of those detained were engaged in political activities that would link them to armed forces like guerrillas. The majority were simply students, workers, or mothers.”
He added, “I always felt kind of in debt [to the Mothers] because I do think they played a crucial role in restoring democracy to the country.”
The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo
Archivo Hasenberg-Quaretti
The relentless efforts of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in demanding accountability contributed significantly to the end of the dictatorship. In 1983, democratic elections returned power to the people, leading to Videla’s eventual conviction in 2012 for crimes related to the disappearances and other atrocities, including the theft of babies from detained mothers.
Norita, who passed away last year at 94, continued to influence Argentina by advocating for various issues, including women’s access to abortion. Throughout her activism, she maintained a non-partisan stance.
“Nora never aligned with a political party, which for me is the ethical stance of great standing,” Schoellkopf remarked. “All the politicians would call her and be like, ‘Okay, Norita, stand with me on a mountain with a flag.’ And she’d respond, ‘I’m not doing that. This is not my cause. My cause is truth, justice, the people.’”
